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romping games.

No one could have behaved less like a Princess of Wales; but thier guests

were well aware that there had never before been a Princess of Wales like

Caroline of Brunswick.

But what she most enjoyed were the times she spent with those whom she

called ‘her children’. She had her school which she herself superintended and

where the children received a good education; not as she was determined to make

sure, an education which would give them airs and graces and good manners. Oh

no, theirs was to be a practical education. She wanted to equip her children, who would have no fortune, to take their places in the world with a trade behind them.

She wanted her girls to learn how to manage a house so that if they married they

would be good wives; and the boys should not leave school without a good trade

in their hands. She, who was so wildly impractical in most things, was entirely the opposite where her children were concerned.

Each day they were brought to her and took a meal with her. They called her

Mamma and had no shyness where she was concerned. They would come to her if

they hurt themselves and she was the one who must bandage them or kiss and

make better.

‘There is only one thing I regret about my children,’ she told Mrs. Fitzgerald,

her lady-in-waiting, ‘and that is that they are not my own.’

She spoke wistfully, for in every child she saw her own daughter Charlotte

and lived for the hours she could spend with the little girl.

‘All my life,’ she told Miss Hayman and Mrs. Fitzgerald, ‘I longed for a child,

and when I had one it was to discover she belonged to the State and not to me.

What a tragedy! But I must not complain, must I? I have my little family and I

think of them all as my own— all the little children I should have had if I had

been allowed to marry where my heart lay. That was with my dear Töbingen. Ah,

I could tell

you of my beloved Major. He was worth a hundred princes. But he was not good

enough for poor little Caroline. Does that not make you laugh?’

They were accustomed now to the wild conversation of their mistress and saw

nothing remarkable in it.

She was busy in Montague House; her children saw to that. She turned one of

her fields into potato land so that the produce could be sold to add to the income she spent on her children.

She enjoyed walking round the field while the potatoes were being dug.

‘You see,’ she would say to her ladies, ‘I should never have been a princess. I

should have been a country woman to marry where I wished and raise children—

my own— a large family all my own.’

But the happiest days were when she saw Charlotte. She would devise games

to amuse the child; she showered affection on her and it was returned and

meanwhile she knew that the Prince was making all sorts of plans to keep them

apart and that but for the intervention of the King he would have done so.

She discovered a gift for modelling in clay and her first effort was to make a

head of her daughter.

‘To remind me of you, my angel,’ she said, ‘when you are not with me.’

Charlotte was intrigued and sat as still as she could while her mother worked;

then when the sitting was over they would play rough games— for Charlotte was

a tomboy— until it was time for the little Princess to go back to Carlton House.

So,
thought Caroline,
deprived of my own child for long periods, I must have
my adopted family to keep me from grieving.

Because she thought that the sea would provide her boys with a career she

made the acquaintance of Admiral Samuel Hood who was the Governor of

Greenwich, Hospital; and through him she met a man who was to have an

important effect on her life. This was the dashing sailor, Sir William Sydney

Smith, always known as Sir Sydney, a man who immediately attracted Caroline

because he had the manner of an adventurer and was indeed one. He had fought

many a sea battle and could tell a stirring story, so he was cordially welcomed to Montague House.

Caroline was entranced and made no secret of her interest in the sailor. He

must come again to Montague House, she told him, when he was in the

neighbourhood.

‘That, Your Highness,’ he replied, ‘could be any time you invite me, because

I am staying for a while in the house of my friend Sir John Douglas.’

‘And that is nearby?’ Caroline wanted to know.

‘Very close to Montague House. Your Highness has doubtless seen the house

on your trips around. In fact, it is the nearest to Montague House. You should

meet the Douglases; they are an amusing pair. John Douglas was with me at Saint

Jean d’Acre. That was when I was taking care of the defences. Those were

stirring days. I could tell you some tales. It was just before I took over command of Alexandria. I remember the news coming in that Bonaparte had stormed Jaffa.’

The Princess’s eyes shone with excitement. If she could not have a large

family of children to care for she would like to travel about the world, see strange places, enjoy the company of exotic men and women.

‘Well, my friend Douglas was with me. And now I’m ashore for awhile, I’m

staying with them. Lady Douglas is an enchanting creature. She has recently had

the most delightful child.’

‘A child.’

‘A baby daughter. A pretty and engaging creature I do assure you. Your

Highness would enjoy meeting the mother and child.’

‘That I should,’ said Caroline, ‘and doubtless I will as they are such near

neighbours.’

————————

Such a cold day,
thought Caroline. How she wished that she was in one of those hot and sunny spots which dear Sir Sydney talked about with such

enthusiasm. Still, her destiny lay here. She had come to England to be a Princess of Wales, one day a queen— though she trusted that would be a long time hence,

since it could only be on the death of the King.

She felt restless so she sent for Miss Hayman and told her she was going to

walk.

‘Alone, Your Highness?’

‘Yes, dear Hayman, alone.’

It amused her to see the shocked look in dear Hayman’s eyes. They should be

used to her by now. She was not treated like a Princess; she was not allowed to

live in Carlton House; therefore she would behave like a country lady and go

walking alone if she wished.

In her mauve satin cloak and yellow half boots she looked very colourful.

Would Maria Fitzherbert say she looked a little too flamboyant?
Well, Maria my
love, I am the Princess not you!

‘Now, my love, bring my sable cap and I’ll be off.’ When the cap was brought

she set it jauntily on her head. ‘There, my dear, the Princess of Wales takes the air

— unescorted— but not desolate. Because it is as she wishes and as she

commands.’

‘Your Highness—’

‘No, my dear, I do not need your company. I am going alone.’

She left Montague House smiling as she went. She knew exactly where she

was going. She would call on Lady Douglas and see the enchanting child and

perhaps Sir Sydney Smith if he were there.

She found the house he had described. How did one call? Did one walk

straight up to the door and knock? That was what she had done in Brunswick

when she had wished to call on humble folk. But this was not Brunswick; and

there she had merely been the Princess Caroline, daughter of a small ducal house.

Perhaps the Princess of Wales should have a different approach.

She put her hand on the gate and hesitated; then she stopped and walked up

and down along by the iron railings.
What does it matter how I get in? It only
matters that I do.

An attractive young woman had come out of the house and approached

Caroline. Opening the gate, she asked: ‘Do you want something? Can I help you?’

‘Are you Lady Douglas?’

‘Yes, I am.’

‘I thought you must be. I hear you are the mother of a very beautiful little girl.

May I see her? I love children.’

‘Madam—’ began the startled woman.

‘Sir Sydney told me about her. Sir Sydney Smith. He was at Montague House,

you see.’

‘Montague House— but that is—’

Caroline nodded. ‘Yes, of course. I am the Princess Caroline— Princess of

Wales.’

‘Your Highness!’

‘There’s no need to stand on ceremony. Ask me in, please.’

‘My— my humble house is at Your Highness’s service.’

‘Well, come and show me your little daughter.’

So that was the beginning and Sir Sydney was right. The child was

enchanting. As for Sir John and Lady Douglas, they were delighted to have the

honour of entertaining Her Royal Highness. And while they gave her refreshment

Sir Sidney arrived; and then there was a joyful encounter between him and the

Princess

It was a very entertaining visit and Sir Sidney begged leave to escort her back

to Montague House, which permission she willingly gave.

The Douglases were hopeful, they told her, that they might again have the

pleasure of Her Highness’s company and that they hoped that next time she came

she would give them warning so that they might have the opportunity of

entertaining her in a fitting manner.

‘Nonsense!’ cried Caroline. ‘I’ve been most fittingly entertained! I want no

ceremony— you shall come to my next Party at Montague House and certainly I

shall come again. We are neighbours.’

————————

When Caroline had left with Sir Sydney the Douglases looked at each other in

astonishment.

‘I feel I’ve dreamed the last two hours,’ said Lady Douglas.

‘I always heard she was eccentric.’

‘Who would have believed that she— that woman— was our future Queen!’

‘The stories we’ve heard must have been true.’

‘What an adventure!’ said Lady Douglas. She looked at her husband. He was

a brave man and had not done badly; he had been given a pension after the part he had taken with Sir Sydney in the defence of Saint Jean d’Acre; but she was the

strong one; she had always led the way and he had always followed.

When she had suggested that the gay bachelor, Sir Sydney Smith, should live

in their house when he was ashore, he had raised no objection and if he knew of

the relationship between herself and Sir Sydney he raised no objection to that

either. He was no raiser of objections and that suited Lady Douglas and Sir

Sydney very well indeed.

But the Princess of Wales— to call on them like some humble village woman!

‘I hear you have a beautiful daughter!’
mimicked Lady Douglas in a thick

guttural accent. ‘What an extraordinary thing!’

‘You found her— attractive?’ asked Sir John.

‘I would say she is an attractive proposition rather than an attractive woman,’

said Lady Douglas with a smirk.

‘You think this could bring good fortune to us?’

‘I intend to see that it does. Good Heavens, can’t you imagine what it could

mean to us? Friends in high places! My dear friend and neighbour is Madame

Caroline. She’s crazy; she’s wild; she behaves in the oddest way— I grant you

that. But she is still the Princess of Wales.’

‘Sydney seemed taken with her.’

Lady Douglas turned away to hide the frown.

‘He would have to be taken with the Princess of Wales, wouldn’t he? So have

you to be— and I. So have we all, if we’re wise.’

Lady Douglas left her husband and went to her room as she said to think of

what could come out of this.

From her window she watched for the return of Sir Sydney and when he came

back and up to the rooms which had been set aside for him, she was waiting for

him in his bedroom.

‘Well?’ she demanded.

‘It’s a fantastic thing. I can scarcely believe it.’

‘She’s a fantastic thing, you mean.’

‘Tut tut, Lottie. You’re talking of the Princess of Wales. Remember that.’

‘I trust you remembered it.’

‘Now what does that mean?’

She threw herself against him and put her arms about his neck. ‘You know

full well.’

He laughed.

‘Myself— and the Princess of Wales! Come, Lottie, you’re letting your

imagination run away with you.’

‘Mind you don’t let yours run away with you where that woman’s concerned.’

He laughed again and embraced her.

‘Your spare time is for me,’ she told him. ‘Remember it.’

‘As if you’d let me forget!’

‘I shan’t. But if you did by any chance there’d be trouble. You know that.’

‘I know my Lottie,’ he said.

————————

The friendship with the Douglases flourished. Lady Douglas, Caroline

believed, was a very exciting personality. She was full of fun, ready for the

wildest games Caroline arranged for her parties; and there was the delightful little daughter of hers who had been christened Charlotte Sydney.

It made a bond between them that they both had a daughter named Charlotte;

and Caroline was constantly bestowing gifts on the adorable little creature.

How pleased she was that she had called on the Douglases that day!

There was a great deal of entertaining and Sir Sydney was in good form at

Parties; he had a talent for devising all sorts of games and they were usually

games with forfeits. And the price he always demanded from the ladies was a

kiss. This caused great merriment. And when Caroline had to pay her forfeit, Sir

Sydney did not alter his terms and Caroline was very prepared to kiss him